Design Discussion

[severe sluice]

Discuss this design here, or post additional images or info about your design

[brittle ferry]

Happy for suggestions or changes to these but here are what i think are pretty good:

Pink: Salisbury, +7
Yellow: Wilczek, +3
Light blue: Svalbard, +8
Dark green: Alexandra, +4
Dark Blue: Cook Islands, +5
Black island: Northbrook, +1
Light Green: The Rudolf islands +5
Orange islands: The Hall islands, +4
The Purple Islands: The Graham islands, +3

Official map of the land:

Aerial view:

[quick grove]

The bonuses I think are too high personally, there's a +4 and a +5 for less territories than Africa
With the pathing (and a lot of territories not bordering, so you mainly rely on a smaller number of sea lanes) I think it'd play better as 2 player (maybe up to 4, but optimal 2-3)

That said,
Continent bonuses are very subjective, I like to think of bonuses as something like:
1 as a base continent value
Number of entry points = 1 per entry point
+1 per x territories?
Number of territories that can attack them should be considered too*
(though will always have at least one entry point, making it +2 as the lowest possible continent value)

I'm not sure if it's maybe just the # of connections that make me think bonuses are too high, they almost match the # of territories (middle one at 5 for 5 territories seems really high ratio vs getting 1 for 2 territories)

[proud shoal]

I do like big separated island maps, I agree the +5 for 5 and a +2 for 5 territorys is a bit unbalanced (even with the number of connections)

Even a sea land from that lower +2 up to the +3 top right would balance that (and remove some obvious kill guards)

[brittle ferry]

The bonuses arent the main selling point, but yes i did see that and i did it on purpose as the way i arranged them, made it so the board is a little feisty, my thinking was, just because there is a op bonus to hold, doesnt mean other players are going to let you.

But i am happy for suggestions and i am willing to change the numbers

Even the structure

I mostly play classic fixed and watch streamers play other games, so i consider these things when giving the numbers:

How long it takes to take a bonus
How hard is it to hold a bonus
How well is it compared to the rest of the map

[brittle ferry]

The +4 is pretty hard to hold and hard to get because of it being detached, also that its such a thin island, it can get clogged up when people are trying to move out. Its also connected to a lot of the map, which i thought might produce scrutiny

[proud shoal]

Tbf you can always make it a hot bonus on initial release, and adjust accordingly (like Japan map)

Definitely put alot of thought into the structure and considered thouse points of other people being in the way / not letting people hold.

[brittle ferry]

But what i am going to do, is make a few connections to the dark blue bonus

not going to change the islands or the number

just the connection

also i kept the kill guard on orange bonus on purpose

but i think what ill also do is limit the amount of killguards in the light blue bonus

[brittle ferry]

It ain't much but its honest work

Insted of adding connections, i thought itd be more creative to remove them, so now the dark blue bonus is detached lol. @proud shoal @quick grove What do you think?

And i think that makes the green island even harder to hold since there will be a lot of movement there to get into the blue bonus

The thing is that, for ANY map, theres always going to be unanticipated issues with it, that are only seen when playing on the map

Like the japan map

[brittle ferry]

So far i agree that it should be kept this way:

[brittle ferry]

This is the map so far.

Honestly, i think this map is brilliant, and well balanced now. BUT, critiques are still necessary

I think i also need more opinions which will come over the month before the end of the competition and then by the end i should have a polished map that is fit for use for a lot of players and settings

Island maps are harder to make